preaching for Advent

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Friday, 1 January 2016 : Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, Theotokos, World Day of Prayer for Peace (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we commemorate the beginning of the new year in the reckoning of our calendar, and as we welcome the very first moments of this year, we also remember, as we have done every year, the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, also known as Theotokos, by the virtue of her being the mother of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Today’s celebration is very important for us and for our faith, for in it lies the very basic tenet of our Faith, which even many people over the ages tried to rebuke and disprove in their wrong thoughts and heretical teachings. Chief of all these is Arius, the one who started the heresy of Arianism. In this heresy, those who adhere to its false teachings contended that Jesus was not God, but only mere Man.

For them, the nature of Jesus is as a created being, no different from that of all the other creatures. They did not see Jesus as the Son of God, and therefore much less, as the Divine Word incarnate into Flesh. They refused to believe that He is God, from the beginning until the end and unto all ages. They thought in their feeble minds, that it is impossible for God to bear a Son in Jesus.

And therefore the Church, having recognised the falsehoods of Arius and his followers, a confusion set by the devil himself, set on its way to counter and to fight back this false teaching and vicious heresy. As a result, during the very first Ecumenical Council convened in Nicaea in the year 325 AD, the nature of Christ as the Son of God was established and finalised, and all those who refused to believe in this truth, were cast out as heretics.

And by that virtue, in the later Ecumenical Council, namely the Ecumenical Council held at Ephesus in the year 431 AD proclaimed Mary as the Theotokos, as the Mother of God (Theos). Previously there were also many who believed that Mary is the mother of Jesus, the Man, and as the mother of Christ but no more. There were also those who believed that because Christ is the Lord, both Man and God at the same time, even though Mary His mother was a human being, but by the virtue of being the mother of Jesus Christ, she is also the Mother of God.

This fact cannot be separated from the earlier part of the struggle between the Arians and the faithful Christians, on the nature of our Lord Jesus Christ, whether He is just a Man, or whether He is both God and Man at the same time. If Jesus is just a mere Man, as the Arians had believed, then Mary is no more than just a mother of a great Man and nothing else.

Yet, we all believe in the Motherhood of God, in Mary as the Theotokos, because her Son Jesus is not just a Man, but also God at the same time. He is both fully God and fully Man at the same time, and the two natures, God and Man, while distinct, cannot be separated from each other and they are bound together in perfect hypostatical union in Christ, in perfect love.

This is why I said that this belief in Mary as the Mother of God is central to our faith, and without which I can say that our hold onto our faith is tenuous and weak. And it is also important to take note that this does not make Mary into a deity or a goddess herself. Rather, if we compare it to an earthly analogy, in a kingdom, a king’s mother is honoured even though she does not rule the kingdom as the mother of the king.

Similarly therefore, as God is the King of kings and the Ruler of all the universe, it is by the virtue of His great Kingship that His earthly mother is also honoured in the same way. This is why Mary as the Mother of God had such a special position in our faith and for all of us too. Why is this so? We have to look no further than the Sacred Scriptures in the Gospels themselves.

Firstly, all of us have been entrusted by our Lord to her, just as He entrusted her to all of us. When Jesus was crucified and about to die, He spoke to both His mother Mary and John His beloved disciple, and He entrusted Mary His mother to him, while at the same time He also entrusted him to His mother. In this manner, He had also entrusted all of us to her care, and He entrusted His own mother to be our intercessor and helper.

In the wedding at Cana, where Jesus performed His first miracle of turning water into wine, a miracle we all surely are familiar with, it was because of Mary’s urging and pleas that eventually Jesus allowed Himself to perform His first miracle despite His unwillingness and earlier rejection to help the wedding couple in distress. Mary never gave up in trying to help them, as she knew that the couple was in great trouble if they were to gain no help.

In the same way therefore, Mary is the one who can also help us on our way to the Lord, and whenever we are lost and in trouble, it is to her that we can also turn in order to help ourselves to escape from our predicament. It was said that the best way to reach out to our Lord Jesus is through His mother Mary, and indeed this is true. For Mary, being the closest to the throne of her Son, lies the closest to Him and her prayers are the ones that her own Son will not overlook.

Today, we also celebrate the World Day of Prayer of Peace, as we embark on this new year, let us all pray for world peace, that mankind will no longer seek to destroy and bring pain and suffering to one another, but instead live in harmony and true peace with each other. Let us all ask for the intercession of our Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, that these prayers we make will come to the ears of our Lord, and may He bless us with His peace.

O Lord Jesus, listen to us Your children and Your people, and let us all live in peace, love and harmony, and through Your blessed Mother Mary, who prays for our sake without cease, let peace reign on earth forevermore. Amen.

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Thursday, 31 December 2015 : Seventh Day within Octave of Christmas, Memorial of Pope St. Silvester I, Pope (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day all of us are asked to reflect on the joy which we have and with which we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ in this Christmas season. Each of us should reflect on today’s Scripture readings in order to understand in greater depth how significant this celebration of Christmas is for all of us.

This reading used to be read at the end of every Mass as what is known as the Last Gospel, for the very purpose that, the whole Mass itself, the entire celebration of our Faith and the whole purpose of the Church, and the very fact why we rejoice in this Christmas and have a hope in God and the eternal life which He promised us, is because of what had been written and revealed in that passage from the first chapter of the Gospel according to St. John.

Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour was not created by God, and neither should He be counted to be among the created ones of God. Even though He is fully and completely Man, but He was not created by God, as He is different. He has existed before everything was made, and indeed, He existed before the world and before the beginning of time, for He is God, and He was God, and He will be always God.

He is the Word of God, the Word of Creation, the one and inseparable aspect of the Lord, which in our understanding, exists as one and only God, but with Three distinct Godheads or Aspects, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, all of Whom are united in perfect love and harmony, such that although they are distinct from each other, but they cannot be separated from each other without diminishing the fullness of God’s greatness and glory.

The Word of God has made Himself into Flesh, the Flesh of Man. He was the Word that was with God, Who is God, and through Whom God created this world, all of creation, all of us mankind and everything that ever was, is, and will ever be. And it is the same Word, Who had come into this world, assuming the flesh of Man, and through the intermediary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, His mother, He was born into this world, an event we celebrate as Christmas.

This is very important as, before He came into this world, He is intangible, untouchable and distant, but God Who loves us all greatly and tenderly, desired for all of us to be reunited with Him and to be with Him in the union of perfect love, and therefore, through Jesus, He made Himself tangible, touchable, and now we can see in Him, the fullness of His love, and indeed, of our own future of happiness and eternal life together with Him.

Through Jesus our Lord, we have seen the very personification of God’s love and mercy. He has provided us this act of ultimate mercy, giving us the new and perfect opportunity to be reconciled with God. He has done everything for our sake, that all of us may be rescued from the abyss of darkness and damnation in hell. Shall we not therefore give our love and devotion to Him as well then?

Let us today reflect on the examples of the faithful servant of God, whose feast we are celebrating today, namely Pope St. Silvester I, the Bishop of Rome and leader of the Universal Church who lived and reigned as Pope during a time of great change in the Church and in the world. Pope St. Silvester I was among the first Popes to have led the Church after the official toleration of the Faith by the Edict of Milan in the year 313 AD, and he led the Church through a time of great renewal.

Pope St. Silvester I led the Church through a time of great building of many churches and basilicas, and many people flocked to the Church as never before. Many professed the faith and became believers, and Pope St. Silvester I and his good leadership and role model in faith helped ensure more and more souls being saved through the good works God had done through His Church.

As we all embark on this last day of the old year and as we rejoice in welcoming the beginning of the new year tomorrow, let us all also follow in the examples of Pope St. Silvester I and the other holy saints of God, so that we may usher in the beginning of a new year to be filled with the fullness of God’s love and our faith in Him. This is the time for us to make our new year’s resolution, that is to abandon our old ways of sin and wickedness, and embrace fully the ways of the Lord.

May Almighty God bless us all, and may He bless our coming new year, so that His blessings may fill that year with much grace, and all of us may look up to the coming of the new year of hope, and be ever more faithful and be more devoted to our Lord and God. God be with us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 30 December 2015 : Sixth Day within Octave of Christmas (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures speaking to us about the Lord Who has been revealed to the world at the Temple through the servants of God, Simeon and Anna the prophetess. These two faithful servants proclaimed the Messiah in the sight and presence of many, and perhaps many heard their words and believe.

And all of us brothers and sisters in the same faith in God, all are gathered here because we all believe in Him, believe in His saving help, the rescue that He had given us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, His own Son, Whom He sent into the world, taking up our own humble flesh, that through that act, and by offering Himself as the perfect offering for our sake, He had redeemed us from our sins and brought us into a new hope for eternal life.

Brothers and sisters, as we continue to go on through this Christmas season or Christmastide, all of us should indeed reflect on this joyous fact, the very fact that our Lord and God had decided to become our Saviour, and He had done that by emptying Himself and becoming a Man like us, that by uniting all of us through Himself, and by giving all of us His own Body and Blood, we who share in His Body and Blood may receive eternal life.

This is the testimony of God’s great and eternal love for us, and His love always endures, despite all of the rejections and the wickedness we have shown for Him, all the rebukes, the refusal to change and the lack of willingness to commit ourselves to His ways. God is always faithful, even if we are unfaithful. He always extends His mercy to cover us and to be with us, until the moment when it is too late for us because we continue to reject Him and refuse to follow Him.

Let this fate not be ours, lest we fall into eternal damnation. If we wait until that had happened, then there is no hope for us, and we will suffer for eternity in hell and in the pain of the total and complete separation from God, and forevermore we shall suffer in ultimate agony and anguish. This is what our Lord did not want to happen to us, and therefore, He sent us a new hope, a Deliverer and a Saviour to bring us into the opportunity to be reunited with Him and thus enjoy forever instead, an eternity of bliss, joy and happiness with Him in heaven.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we all have known God and all that He has done for us. We recognise His love, and all the blessings that He had graced us with. He loves all of us tenderly, and in all things He had granted us He has brought us free from our afflictions. But we all have to realise that there are still many out there who have not known yet about the Lord or heard about Him.

Yes, there are still many who are either ignorant or unable to know the truth about God, and there are still also those who have left the Lord and abandoned Him for the goodness and the pleasures of this world. And it is in our responsibility and duty as one of those who are faithful to God, to be the bearers of His Good News and truth to those who have not heard or known these yet.

This is another meaning of Christmas, that is because Christmas cannot be commemorated or celebrated without understanding the whole big picture in the history of salvation. Without what we celebrate during the Holy Week and Easter, what we celebrate in Christmas will be meaningless. On the other hand, what we celebrate in the Holy Week and Easter would not have been possible without the occurrence of Christmas.

For our Lord came into this world as a Man, and yet a great and almighty King, because of the love which He had for us all. He came so that by His life and by His works, culminating in His own self-sacrifice on the cross, He might become the bridge and intermediary between us and the Lord, that through Him He had redeemed us, absolved us from the taints of original sins, and therefore, bring us into salvation in Him.

Therefore, on this day, let us all commit ourselves anew to the Lord and to the evangelisation of His people with the truth which He Himself had shown us. Let us all spread the Word of God to the many peoples of the nations. May God’s salvation extend to the nations, and may His love for us mankind will be ever more and more enduring and great. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 29 December 2015 : Fifth Day within Octave of Christmas, Memorial of St. Thomas Becket, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the Lord Jesus Who was presented at the Temple of God at the time when He was just eight days old, as He was the Firstborn Son of Mary, which according to the Law and the commandments of God, all the firstborn sons of Israel and his descendants should be presented to the Lord after their birth as a sign of the renewed covenant between God and His people.

This can be linked to what had happened in the past during the time of Abraham, when God made a covenant with him, and established the promise which He had vowed to Abraham, the faithful servant of God, that He would make him and his descendants to be a great nation. But one day, God asked Abraham to bring the son God had promised him, Isaac, to a mountain and sacrifice him as an offering to Him.

We can just imagine what kind of thoughts and emotions that ran through Abraham’s mind at that time. Imagine that the Lord had given you such a great promise, and then suddenly it seemed as if He wanted to take that promise away from him by taking the one whom he had been expecting for a long time, that is a son to be his heir and to be the predecessor of the great nation promised to him.

Yet, if we see how Abraham reacted to the Lord’s request, we can immediately see how he was thoroughly committed to God and obeyed Him without question. He was ready to give up his son to the Lord, as his attitude was likely to be such as, whatever God has given me, God may take again from me. Yes, this is because He is the Lord and Master of all, and it is certainly within His power and authority to decide on the fate of all things.

And therefore, just as Abraham had been willing to give even his own beloved son, the promised son that would be his seed and a great nation, therefore, in this Christmas season, God also would not hold back Himself from giving His own Beloved Son, the Firstborn of all things, not created but Who was with Him since before the beginning of time.

Yes, God gave us none other than His own Beloved Son, the Divine Word of God Who was made Man, one of the Holy Trinity and inseparable part of the Lord, Who came down as a humble Man in Jesus, born of a carpenter and a young virgin, and consecrated to God as all other firstborns of Israel were, so that through Him, this world and all of God’s people might be saved.

This is the essence of Christmas, its true meaning, and which all of us should understand, that the love that God has for all of us is so great, His dedication and commitment to us is so great that He is willing to do all these just so that we may be reunited with Him in perfect love. This is the commitment that God has given to His part of the covenant that He had established with us. But a covenant is a two-way process, and thus we too need to give our part to the covenant.

How do we do this, brethren? Perhaps we should look at the examples of the saint whose life is a good barometer and example to follow in this regard, namely St. Thomas Becket, or St. Thomas of Canterbury, the Archbishop of Canterbury and therefore the Primate of England who lived and worked at about eight hundred years ago, at the time of the Medieval age Europe.

St. Thomas Becket was once the Chancellor of the Realm, the highest political office equivalent to that of today’s Prime Minister and also a good friend of the king of England at that time, king Henry. For a long time, St. Thomas Becket lived a life of privilege, of honour and worldly glory, with all the things that were made available to him because of his esteemed position.

All this changed when the king appointed him as the Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest position in the Church within the realm of the English king, with jurisdiction over the other English bishops, priests and also all of the laity. Such an esteemed position was bestowed on St. Thomas Becket by the king with the hope that he would be able to rein the Church that the king will gain better cooperation from a Church controlled by his own confidant.

Yet, St. Thomas Becket received the revelation of the Faith as he embarked on his new duty, and he wholeheartedly devoted himself to the mission he had been entrusted with. He took his new position of responsibility very seriously, and instead of championing the cause of the king as the king had intended when he appointed St. Thomas Becket as the Primate of England, the fact was completely contrary to the desires of the king.

He opposed the king and the nobles in many occasions, defending the rights of the Church and the faith, and also chastised certain nobles for their wicked ways and called for their repentance. Not even opposition and threats from the nobles and all those who had been negatively affected by St. Thomas Becket’s works could stop him from devoting himself completely to God’s works.

In the end, the nobles with the complicity from the king murdered him in a cold-blooded assassination when St. Thomas Becket celebrated the Mass in his own chapel. The assassination was immediately condemned by the Church and by the people, and those involved had to undergo painful penitential efforts before they were allowed to return to the Church, and St. Thomas Becket was universally recognised as a saint for his hard works and efforts.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us should be inspired by his examples, and we should redouble our efforts and commit ourselves anew to the Lord. May all of us be able to give ourselves more and more to God our Lord and Father, and may He bless us and keep us always in His love. God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 28 December 2015 : Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate the feast of the Holy Innocents, the holy martyrs and amongst the first of those who were martyred for the sake of the Lord. The Holy Innocents were those infants of Bethlehem, who were those below the age of two, who were mercilessly slaughtered by Herod, the king of Judea at the time, because of his fear of the One Who was prophesied to be the King of the Jews.

We heard in the Gospels how the king Herod of Judea, upon hearing from the three Magi or the three wise men from the East that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, became jealous and refused to stand down and pay obeisance and honour the King of kings Who had come into the world. Instead, he plotted in his minds and in his heart, thinking of destroying the King in an act of jealousy, to conserve his own rule and authority, and to prevent his kingdom to be usurped.

We see in today’s Scripture readings the great danger of succumbing to vanity and personal desires, and to jealousy and hatred of others. We see the kind of things and atrocities that mankind was able to do to one another in order to selfishly preserve themselves and gain good things only for themselves. This is the ugly and real extent of our selfishness, the desire and the tendency to think only about ourselves.

We have seen what Herod was prepared to do in order to defend himself, in order to preserve himself and keep his position. He slaughtered innocent children and all those infants below the age of two without mercy and without hesitation in order to hopefully eliminate the King before He is to come to His glory and power. But while men try their best to preserve themselves, as we can see, God has His own plans.

Why do we call the martyrs today the Holy Innocents? That is because we believe that even though we mankind have been tainted by sin, but at a certain age before we are able to reason for ourselves and think for ourselves, and before we are tainted by the many concerns of the world, such as power, desires, jealousy and all of those things that had precisely afflicted Herod, the children of mankind are innocent and blameless.

And it was these pure and blameless beings, powerless and weak who were slaughtered by the king Herod in his futile quest to prevent the King of kings born into this world from claiming and getting His rightful throne, as the King over all of Israel, and as King over the whole world. In the end, the will of God will always triumph, and the proud man is left with none, as king Herod went to his death and certainly he is to be held accountable for all of his sinful deeds.

But one then may ask, that if God is so good, then why could He not have helped and prevented the children from being massacred in the first place? Was He not loving and merciful? If He is so, then how could He have allowed such an atrocity to take place? Surely these are the very questions that are likely to be in our minds as we heard the passages from the Scripture readings today.

In this we all have to realise that even though God indeed, as I have just mentioned, has His will and desire, but He does not oppress us by imposing upon us His will. We also have our free will granted to us by God, a free will to choose and to follow a path that we have chosen. Indeed, for Herod, he has a choice, either he should humbly accept the reality of his position, and give honour and glory to the one true King as the three Magi had, or he could choose to satisfy his own greed and pride, and try his best to remove his enemy.

Thus, all of us today are brought to reflect and to understand the importance of the implications of what we have heard and discussed today for our own sake, and for our own salvation. Should we follow Herod’s path? If we look at our own lives, I am sure we will realise that there are likely quite a few occasions in which we have acted in the same way as Herod had done, in how we interacted with our friends and even to those who are strangers to us.

Let us from now on, then, no longer be selfish and be too self-serving in our actions. On this feast of the Holy Innocents, let us all ask these holy martyrs to pray for our sake, that God will open our hearts and minds so that we will be better able to listen to Him and obey Him in all things, and so that we may grow lesser in our pride and desire, and stronger in our humility, for our own sake, and for our own salvation.

May God bless us and keep us, and may He strengthen us all in everything that we do, and empower us all to be ever more faithful children of God. O, Holy Innocents pray for us sinners and intercede for us before the Lord our God. Amen.

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Sunday, 27 December 2015 : Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate on this Sunday after the Solemnity of Christmas, the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus our Lord, Mary His mother and Joseph, His foster father. On this day we honour that sacred family into whom our Lord and God had been born into this world. This is a model family from which all of our families should model after, and we should indeed heed their examples to be practiced in our own.

As we are still in the midst of the joy of the Christmas season, surely all of us are quite aware of the stories and all the things that are related to Christmas, when our Lord Jesus Christ was born into this world. It all began from the time when the Archangel Gabriel came to Mary and broke the news to her that she would be with a Child, bearing the Saviour in her womb and thus becoming the Vessel and Ark of God’s salvation for men.

And then Joseph, the man to whom Mary had been betrothed to, found out about her pregnancy, and thought that she had been unfaithful to him and committed an adultery, and even so, he tried to salvage her reputation by trying not to publicly denounce her or shame her with the revelation of her seemingly out of order pregnancy. But, when the Angel of God appeared to him in his dreams and revealed to him the truth, he faithfully devoted himself to God’s plans through Mary.

And this continued even so difficulties and challenges faced them together, beginning from the time when Mary was about to give birth to our Lord Jesus. She and Joseph had to travel the treacherous and long distance journey from their house in Nazareth in Galilee to the city of David, Bethlehem in Judea, a distance and journey that certainly no heavily pregnant woman should undertake.

But Joseph followed on very faithfully and helped to get Mary to a place where she could deliver her Child, even in a stable. He protected the newborn Child and His mother, and when the king Herod the Great, who heard of the coming of the Messiah who was prophesied to be the King of the Jews and who was jealous of Him tried to kill Jesus, Joseph guided by the Angel of God in his dream led his family into Egypt until all those who sought the death of Jesus were gone.

And Mary herself loved her Son and her husband equally well, and they together lived on in peace in Nazareth upon returning from Egypt, and as we witnessed in the Gospels, they went together to Jerusalem when Jesus was twelve years old, in order to bring Him to the Temple of God in Jerusalem and join in the festival that was occurring there. We can be sure that they prayed together and worshipped the Lord together.

Indeed, it is likely that it was Mary and Joseph who had taught Jesus how to pray and how to live a life devoted to the Lord and to His commandments. Both Mary and Joseph were devout servants of the Lord, who practiced their faith in all their words, deeds and actions. This is a reminder to all the parents out there that it is their responsibility to teach the faith to their children and to teach them about the Lord.

And we should also note how Jesus, even though He purposefully stayed behind in the Temple of Jerusalem, and arguing with his parents that He had to be in His Father’s house, knowing His true identity as the Son of God and the Divine Word made Man, but He still obeyed His mother and His foster father, followed them and obeyed them as He grew up in the reckoning of man’s years.

This reminds us that children should listen to their parents and learn the right things that they teach them. And this also shows that a family that lives in harmony and love will persevere and prosper. This is very important for us to note, as we now live in a time where the respect and the honour given to the institution of family and the values associated with family life has become lessened and lessened ever more over time.

Yes, we should all be aware how family values and the importance of families became eroded over time, and became increasingly so these days, where people could just mock the institution of families, and family life which was once sacred, had been seen by many people as merely a formality and as even a form of archaism and backwardness.

There are many who sought to destroy the fabric of families, and not least, one of the perpetrators is we ourselves. We have not understood what is the importance of families and how relevant is having a good family to us all. In particular, do we all know that families are the basic units of our faith and the Church? And why is this so, brothers and sisters in Christ?

That is because, as I have just mentioned earlier on, it is usually through the family that someone hears about the faith and the Lord. It is the responsibility of the parents and or godparents, as the vow which all of them had spoken at the time of the baptism of their child, which charged them to bring these little children in good faith and understanding of their Lord’s love and will.

A strong family grounded in good faith will be the foundation of a strong Church, and a strong Church in turn will safeguard its many souls from the attacks of the evil one and from the temptation to turn into sin and wickedness. It is the basic unit of the Church, of our faith, and the family is at the frontline of our regular and constant struggle against the devil and the darkness.

And indeed, the devil knows this, and it is one of the primary objectives of the devil to strike at the heart of the family, for if the family is destroyed, then the souls of the faithful will be in great risk indeed. This is why, on this great feast of the Holy Family, let us all uphold our faith through our family. Let us restore the strength and the harmony within our families, so that together as families blessed by God, each of our family members will be able to resist the devil and his assaults.

May the Lord Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, Who loved and obeyed His earthly parents and listened to them, and Mary, the Mother of God, whose faith and devotion were exemplary, and St. Joseph, foster father of our Saviour in his commitment and hard works inspire us all to do the same with our own families. God bless us and our families, now and forever. Amen.

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Saturday, 26 December 2015 : Feast of St. Stephen, Protomartyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we mark the celebration of the feast of St. Stephen, the first martyr or the Protomartyr of the Church and the Faith, which means that he was officially recognised to be the first to lay down his life for the sake of God and for the sake of his faith after the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

St. Stephen, if we read the Acts of the Apostles, was one of the seven holy servants of God whom had been chosen by the Apostles themselves to be a new order of those who have been chosen to distribute the graces, goods and blessings of the faithful to those who have less, the poor ones and the less fortunate ones. He was one of the seven original deacons of the Church.

He served the people of God faithfully and the Holy Spirit was with him, and filled with the Holy Spirit, he was filled with courage and strength to proclaim the good works of God’s salvation to the people, and to testify courageously and without fear the truth which had been revealed through Jesus Christ, the Lord and Saviour of the world. And yet, we also heard of those who sought to destroy the faithful and the Church, those who refused to believe in the truth.

Yes, and these persecuted the faithful people of God, and St. Stephen was the first to bear the brunt of their attacks and their wrath. He suffered and was persecuted, and yet if we see his great testimony in the first reading today and in the Acts of the Apostles, then we all should know how courageous and fearless he was as he spoke in the defence of his faith to the Lord, the true faith in the Lord Jesus, our Lord and Saviour.

He did not even fear for his life or be discouraged by the whole multitudes of those who sought to silence him and destroy him, the whole assembly of the Sanhedrin, the elders of Israel and the Pharisees. Instead, just as our Lord had spoken in the Gospel today, the Holy Spirit gave St. Stephen the strength, the inspiration, the courage and the eloquence of words to preach the Good News of God’s salvation to them.

And he led an exemplary Christian life to the end, and imitated Jesus our Lord Himself in what He had done on the cross. That is when he had been tortured and brought to die by stoning, he forgave his accusers and enemies, just as Jesus had done Himself, and he surrendered himself completely to God Who had guided him and protected him all those while.

One may then wonder how come we are talking about martyrdom and death, the death of a faithful servant of the Lord on the day just after the revelry, the merrymaking and the joy of the Christmas day? Indeed, as the peak of the Christmas celebrations last for a week, this is still right in the middle of the Christmas celebration and joy. Therefore, why is this so, brethren in Christ?

That is because, the nature of Christmas and its reality cannot be separated from what we remember today in what St. Stephen and also the many other martyrs of the Church had done. These holy men and women were those who had dared to stand up for what they believe in the Lord God Who came down to us in the form of Man, and Who had given up Himself to be crucified and to be our sacrifice for our salvation.

Despite the opposition, the ridicule and the enormous pressures being meted out against them, and the threat against their own safety and their very own lives, these holy men and women, and chief of all represented by the very first one to be counted among them, St. Stephen, all of them had shown the resolve and the desire to remain faithful to the Lord despite all odds.

And let us ask ourselves, that if God had loved us so much and gave us so many blessings and graces, to the point of even giving Himself for our sake, to suffer and to die for us, shall we not do the same for us as well? God does not require long prayers or commitment of the flesh and the words, but what He truly desired from us is our love and complete dedicatiod to Him. May Almighty god strengthen our resolve to live our lives ever more devoted and commited to Him in every way conceivable.

Therefore, remembering the examples of these holy martyrs, and chief of all, St. Stephen, let us all remember what we have rejoiced for on Christmas day yesterday, and as we continue to glorify the Lord and rejoice in this Christmas season, let us all remind ourselves of the need to be courageous and to be willing to defend the same thing that we believe in, if we are to resist the temptation of sin and of the world, and remain true to the calling which God had given us through Christ, our Lord. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 25 December 2015 : Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, Christmas Day (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is a very special occasion in the whole liturgical year of the Church, one of the two most important events in our faith life, as well as in the reckoning of the celebration of the Church, that is the Solemnity of our Lord’s Nativity, His birth into this world, into this earth, or what we also knew more commonly as Christmas.

On this day, which we have been spending the whole season of Advent, a whole four weeks of it in order to prepare ourselves for its celebrations, we celebrate together and rejoice together as one people and as one Church for the love of God made Man, that by His perfect and infinite love for us all mankind, He had manifested that love through Jesus Christ, the Word of God made Flesh and into Man.

To many of us, Christmas is just another holiday and merrymaking season, the time much needed for us to take a break after a long and tiring year, especially with the long holidays and the New Year celebrations just around the corner. However, many of us missed the essence of Christmas and why we are celebrating it year after year, and even today, to the point that we became engulfed with the ever increasingly commercialised Christmas.

Just imagine, brothers and sisters in Christ, if we ask our brethren, both young and old around us, how many of them really understand what Christmas is and how it is so meaningful to them? Many of us might have known that Christmas is the celebration of the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ, but to many of us, that is all that we know about, and many of us did not bother to go even further to understand its meaning.

Yes, this is the danger of making Christmas so superficial and worldly to the point that it lost its importance and significance. And to many of us, after having celebrated Christmas many times since the time when we could remember it, many of us had treated it just as other occasions in their lives, happening again and again year after year, as a mere formality and routine in the reckoning of time.

And combine this with the amount of materialism and commercialism that surround Christmas now, and we should realise how grave the problem is, and how bad it will be in the future as well. How many of our young ones when we ask them about Christmas remember about Santa Claus and his elves, the gifts and the parties, the glamour and the revelries more than what they remember and know about Christ our Lord?

Indeed, today is a time of great joy and celebration, but on the other hand, all of us should also be aware lest the devil uses the opportunity to bring harm to us, by snatching away from us the knowledge and the understanding of how important Christmas is for us, as without Christmas, there could be no hope for us, and we all would have lived our lives in despair, knowing that we are heading to a certain disaster in the end.

Why is this so? That is because all of us men have tasted the bitterness of sin, and sin had entered into all of us, because of our disobedience, not just that of our first ancestors, but also men throughout the ages, tempted by the lies and the guiles of Satan and his fellow fallen angels, the tempters and all the temptations they could muster to make us all disobey the Lord.

And as a result, as we could see in the Book of Genesis, mankind who were not created to endure sufferings, pain and death. All these were the consequences of our disobedience and our sins against God. It was because of our bondage to sin and evil which separated us from the love and grace of God, for God Who is all good and perfect can have no evil and wickedness to coexist in His presence.

That was why, ever since the day when mankind were cast out of Eden for their disobedience, we have wandered in this world and we have awaited for the day of the coming of our redemption and liberation from the tyranny of evil and sin, for the day when the Lord’s promise would be made complete and perfectly fulfilled. Yes, this is because, in the Book of Genesis too, when God punished men for their disobedience, He also provided them with a hope amidst the darkness, that He Who loved them would not abandon them forever.

In particular, God spoke of how tension and rivalry would come in between the devil, that is the old snake and his forces, with the children of men, and how the devil and his angels would harm the sons and daughters of men, tempting them as they had done against their ancestors, that the children of men too would sin and therefore fall into disobedience and damnation.

But, God spoke of the Woman through whom He would bring about His salvation, when the chains of sin and the tyranny of evil would be broken forever, when the Child would crush the head of the snake, representing the final and total defeat of the devil and all of his dark forces. And God maintained His promise of salvation and liberation throughout the ages, through His servants and prophets.

And He even gave His people a foretaste of the true salvation of all mankind, that is when the Israelites, the children of Abraham were enslaved by the Egyptians in Egypt, He raised up Moses His servant, through whom He did great wonders, and through His own mighty hand, by the intermediary acts of Moses, He led His people out of Egypt and crushed the Egyptians and their Pharaoh.

But all these are nothing compared to what the Lord has done for us in Christmas, and by extension, eventually to Easter which we shall celebrate again later next year. This is because for all the sufferings that we mankind suffer in the flesh, the persecution by the world, the scourges on the flesh, the torture of the body, none of these could harm us all for eternity except for one thing, that is sin.

Yes, sin is a very dangerous ailment that had afflicted every single one of us, and it had penetrated deep into our entire being, in our hearts, our minds, our souls and our flesh, corrupting our entire being. And it is dangerous because it inflicted suffering and pain not just on the flesh, but also on our eternal soul. It was because of sin that we have been sundered away from the love and grace of God, and it is also because of sin that the souls of those who have not repented their sins are in danger of eternal damnation.

And it was through Christmas that God fulfilled the promises which He had made to us throughout the generations. Many people have long awaited for the coming of the Lord’s Messiah, and indeed, on Christmas Day, we celebrate that Saviour, or Messiah Who came into the world. And He is none other than the Lord Himself, the Word of God, or the Logos, the Word Incarnate into Flesh.

We heard in the Scriptures where it was spoken how God so loved the world, that He gave us the perfect gift of His own Son, that as He assumed the flesh of Man, by being one of us, He might bring unto us the salvation and eternal life promised to us. This is the true meaning and the essence of Christmas, not the joys and the pleasures of the world, not all the glamours, the gifts and the merrymaking, but it is truly about God’s love for us, a celebration of His Eternal Love.

And today we celebrate, we rejoice and we honour God, exalting Him exceedingly and greatly for the Love which God had showered us, and which had manifested itself perfectly in Jesus Christ. It is His birthday that we celebrate today, and today we glory in the Lord and we thank Him because God Who was once invisible had decided to make Himself visible and tangible to us, and not just that, as He had given us His own Flesh and Blood to share and to eat, so that He dwells in us just as we dwell in Him!

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we rejoice in this Christmas Day, and as no doubt our joy we will continue to rejoice in the several days to come, let us all learn to put Christ our Lord at the heart of our Christmas celebrations, and just as we should understand that Christmas is about the love of God made Man, and how God loved us so much that He sent us His own Son to save us, let us all also imitate His examples.

How do we do this? It is by sharing this joy that we have, the Christmas joy with those who have less or none. It is important that we do not keep the joy for ourselves, as we have to remember that God sent His Son to everyone without exception, even to the greatest sinners! And it is the Good News of His salvation, His desire that all of us should repent our sins and be reunited with Him that we too need to share with the world.

Therefore, let this Christmas be a meaningful one for us, where we celebrate it with true joy and with true understanding of God’s love, and let us all by our actions and deeds, and by our sharing of this Christmas joy and blessings, bring forth the Good News of our Lord’s salvation to the nations, and bring ever more souls to the salvation that only can be found in Jesus Christ, our Lord, born on Christmas Day. May He bless us all in all of our endeavours. Merry Christmas and may God bless your day with eternal joy! Amen.

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Thursday, 24 December 2015 : 4th Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the season of Advent ends today as tomorrow we joyfully celebrate the great solemnity of our Lord’s Nativity, Christmas, the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, into this world, the Lord and the Divine Master of all, Who assumed the humble flesh of ours, and became a Man like ourselves. This is the essence of Christmas, and this is what we celebrate together.

And appropriately, the readings from the Sacred Scriptures today in the first reading from the Second Book of the prophet Samuel spoke about the king of Israel, David, the faithful servant of God, who wanted to build a house for the Lord, as he thought that it was improper for him to dwell in a majestic palace made from cedar and gold, while the Lord Who was present in the Ark of the Covenant remained under a Tent, the Holy Tent of Meeting.

And it was told how God refused David’s offer to build a house for Him, and He told him how his son, Solomon would be the one to build the magnificent House, the Temple of God in Jerusalem. And we know how that great Temple was built with the best quality wood and stones, with abundance of gold and silver, and such a great gathering of worldly precious goods that may have never been surpassed ever since.

Such was indeed the attempt of men to glorify God from time immemorial, as both kings David and Solomon tried their best to glorify God in the best way they could give and provide, by honouring Him with the best sacrifices and with thrones and dwellings made from gold, silver and many precious stones, so that all who gaze upon that great House of God would be awed and would bow down before the one and only True God.

And how is this relevant for us, brothers and sisters in Christ? What is its relevance to our celebration of Christmas? That is because that magnificent Temple of Solomon was destroyed and razed to the ground by the Babylonians. Nothing was left of that Temple, and the Ark of the Covenant too disappeared without a trace, likely destroyed in the midst of the carnage as well.

That catastrophic event marked the symbolic rupture in the Covenant which God had established with His people, because that people refused to listen to Him and obey His commandments, and instead, they followed their own rebellious paths, and they served and worshipped pagan gods and idols. They were unfaithful to their part of the Covenant and consequently they suffered the consequences of having broken the covenant of the Lord.

Then, even though the Temple of Jerusalem was rebuilt and made even greater in size and majesty by the king Herod the Great during the time of Jesus, but the Lord Himself revealed through Jesus Christ that He had transcended the physical Temple where the people worshipped and offered sacrifices, for He no longer just spiritually dwelled among His people, but in the very matter of the world, in His own Flesh and Blood, in Christ, He dwelled and is now still dwelling among all of us His people.

Yes, just as on one occasion Jesus spoke of how He would tear down the Temple of God and rebuild it in just three days, when the people and the Pharisees misunderstood Him thinking that He referred to that magnificent stone edifice that is the Temple built after the return of the Israelites from exile and then enlarged by king Herod. Instead, He was referring to Himself, to His own Body.

Christ is the very Presence of God, for He Himself is God, the Divine Word incarnate into the flesh, that by assuming our form, He made Himself real and tangible to us all, and dwells completely among us in physical form and in spirit. And this happened from that moment of His conception and then birth into this world, which is Christmas! God Who was once invisible to us have made Himself visible and tangible, that we all would know that He is with us as He has always been ever since the beginning.

And He did not just stop at that, for He Himself came into this world in order to save us all, and He did just that by raising Himself up as the Lamb of the perfect offering and sacrifice in atonement for all of our sins and rebelliousness against God. And He gave us His own Body and His own Precious Blood, so that all of us who share in His Body and Blood, that is the Eucharist we receive worthily, will also share in the eternal life He has promised us.

Yes, this is because God Himself dwells within each and every one of us. Just as St. Paul rightly put it, when he said of each one of us as the Temples of God’s Most Holy Presence, the Temples of His Holy Spirit, for God Himself is within us, as we share His Precious Body and Blood, and as we too have received the Holy Spirit that He had sent to all who believe in Him and remain faithful to Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us reflect on all this, as we approach the day of Christmas tomorrow. Let us know and understand, and realise that Christmas is not just a joyous celebration of our Lord’s coming and birth into the world, but it should also be a moment when we give thanks to God and strive to do our best in order to make ourselves ever worthy to be the dwellings of our Lord Most High.

May God continue to bless us all in everything and in all of our endeavours, so that we may grow ever stronger in our love and dedication for Him. May He continue to guide us on our path, and may this Christmas be a moment for us to understand even deeper how much God has loved us that He was willing to suffer for us and to be one like us, and to be united with us by the giving of His own Precious Body and Blood for our salvation. God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Wednesday, 23 December 2015 : 4th Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John of Kanty, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, as we are approaching Christmas in two days’ time, we heard about St. John the Baptist, whose role was truly great but many of us did not realise how crucial he was to the plan of salvation. Indeed his role was less than that of our Lord Himself, the Saviour, and that of His blessed mother Mary, the Ark of the New Covenant. Yet, through the acts of this faithful, holy and devoted servant of God, the world which had for long lost its hope, heard the beautiful news of the coming of God’s salvation.

For John the Baptist was what God had promised to His people through the prophets, as He spoke of him to the prophet Isaiah as a voice proclaiming in the wilderness of the coming of God’s kingdom and His salvation, and as the messenger which God had promised who would make straight His paths when He came into this world, as the one who would initiate the beginnings of God’s work of mercy in this world.

And even though his role as the Herald of the Messiah and the King of the Universe was truly great, prestigious and incomparable in some way, but he remained humble and committed to his mission as a servant, and he refused to give in to human pride and desire, as whenever people asked him whether he was the Messiah, he rejected it and said that he was not the Messiah, but the one who would precede Him and who would proclaim Him to the world when He revealed Himself.

And in another occasion, St. John the Baptist also humbly proclaiming that he was not even worthy to untie the straps of the sandals of the Lord, and how when his disciples complained about the growing popularity of Jesus, he proclaimed openly that while He increased in might, power and popularity, he as the servant who had done what he had been tasked to do, should decrease and become less important.

From this we can learn very important lesson about ourselves, as St. John Baptist had shown us the way of the servant of God, faithful, committed and devoted to the truth that God had brought into this world. This Christmas and all of its celebrations is not about us, and it is not about how much wealth, glamour and bling that we can showcase to one another, and not about the rich foods and drinks, and all the other worldly things that we share with one another. It is truly about the Lord.

Yes, it is rather about the joy that our Lord had brought into the world, to all of us, because we who were once destined to be damned and destroyed, to suffer forever the torment and the torture of our eternal soul in hell because of our disobedience and our sins against Him, had been given a new hope of salvation and a new life which He promised to all of those who are willing to change themselves and follow Him.

Let us today, as we reflect on the examples of humility and obedience of St. John the Baptist, also reflect on what St. John of Kanty, a priest and saint whose feast we celebrate today, in what he has done in his own earthly life. St. John of Kanty was a Polish priest known also as St. John Cantius, who was renowned for his dedication and commitment to the Lord, and how he served and helped the poor around him by his many works and his charities.

He was thoroughly dedicated to the advancement of the knowledge of the divine truth, and by his long years of studies and by the many works and many manuscripts that he had written, he had inspired many people to live their lives faithfully to the Lord and to accept the fullness of truth as espoused by the Church and its teachings.

The same thing St. John Baptist had also done as what St. John of Kanty had done in his life, in proclaiming the truth of the Lord, as He was coming into the world in Jesus Christ, and thus these two devoted servants of the Lord preached the true joy of Christmas that is to come, that is our Lord, our True and only Joy. And in doing so, they remained humble and unassuming, fulfilling what had been tasked to them to do, and not taking credit upon themselves.

This is what all of us Christians should do as well, and in how we celebrate the feast of Christmas, let us all share the joy that can be found in our Lord Jesus Christ with all the peoples, especially to all those who are still living in ignorance against Him and those who have yet to hear of the Good News of His salvation. Let us all through our words, actions and deeds be the bearers of the Lord’s salvation to all of His peoples.

May Almighty God bless us all, and may He strengthen our faith always, so that this Christmas will be ever more meaningful to us, and that we may be able to celebrate it with full and complete understanding of its importance, and what it means to us and to our brethren, especially to those who did not yet know Christ our Saviour. May God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.